Catching up

So! quite a while since my last post and a ton has been going on. I will try to do an update without rambling too much or boring the socks off people. First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR! My holidays away from home couldn't have gone better. Marcy and I were treated like family and really taken in for the day. We went to Greg's parents house for a delicious, huge breakfast and to open gifts (yes, somehow santa found us down here). His mom was sweet and got us pjs, perfume and shower stuff. We spend the morning there and that afternoon had to rush to get our salads ready for Steve's family's pot luck ham Christmas dinner held at his sisters house. Again, another big meal and hanging out with "family". we played santa and distributed the gifts for the secret santa. it was a wonderful evening. Crazy paul (other roommate) between christmas and early january went bizerk on us and was mean, left us rude notes (on christmas day, about not doing the dishes once) and was a general pain in the neck constantly making unnescessary snarky comments. so, time for us to get out of newcastle! we gave our 2 week notice late december. We then had to fit in as much as possible in our last week of living there. We went with Steve to Sydney for new years where we stayed with one of his friends and his girlfriend. We watched both sets of fireworks (9pm and midnight) from the top of the girlfriend's parent's house. it's 3 stories and worth 2.2 million (due to the fact that it is beautiful and it's location in sydeny) the rooftop deck looked out towards the bridge and city skyline and the fireworks were positivly amazing. other than that it was a low key night but very much enjoyed by all. back to newcastle on the train which takes 3 hours only to rest for the day and get up the next morning to head back to Sydney on the train yet again. Marcy and I went and saw Matt Costa in concert at an awesome venue in sydney. it was this little pub and you were hard pressed to find a bad place to stand. the concert was wicked although parts are a bit hazy. up again the next morning to get back on the train, back to newy for a day of recovery, going to steve's nanna's wake, and a bit of packing. The next morning we were picked up at 7am by greg to go out to tea gardens (an hours drive from newy) to his family's cottage. we spent the day with him and his parents out on the boat. we saw at least 15 dolpins (have the pictures to show it) and went fishing. we pulled in to Nelson bay where his mom (clare), marcy and i took a look around the shops and clare bought a tube spur of the moment. we went tubing for the rest of the afternoon. Got a big prawn feed for lunch and greg's brother phillip; his wife, janita; and his sister, deb all came down for the night as well. we all went to the pub for a few beer and to play trivia. came back to the cottage where marcy and i took on clare and greg in a game of party scrable. we barely won but it was pretty funny. the next morning we all went out for greg's dad, steve's, birthday. Back out in teh boat with phil, janita, and deb for a very long ride out to the river for more tubing.
that night we went out with steve and his friends to the bowlo for a last get together before our flight to melbourne at 6am.
the fight was fine- quick, only 1.5 hours. but when i arrived in melbourne i realized i didn't have my walet. yep. stupid shannon left it at the bowlo. tracked it down and had it sent to the iep office here in melbourne. tjank god for marcy and lending me cash to survive for the past few days.
since we've arrived we've just walked around melbourne getting a feel for the place, looking for jobs and just found a place to live. which we have to go move into now. it's a guesthouse/backpackers where we'll pay weekly rent and stay in a dorm type room. we'll know at the end of the week if we'll be here for the month or move outside the city to do harvesting.
i hope all is well at home. love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon. more updates more often i swear. i forget the funny stuff when i wait this long. so i'll try to fix that.
xoxo